Like a five-star restaurant, a five-point absinthe is going to be of uncommon quality: nearly flawless and a standard to which others should aspire. Unlike most restaurant ratings, where a one-star rated restaurant might be an interesting but very casual place to dine, a one-star absinthe is considered poor to the point of unacceptability. We tried to reserve a zero rating for this, but it turned out to be problematic in programming the rating component on our web site.

A five-star rating on any particular criteria should be reserved for perfection or very near perfection, i.e., no improvement desired or necessary.

Here’s a breakdown of how overall scores reflect an absinthe’s quality:

Use the information below as your guide to score the criteria. Your score will be noted in your review and the average user score for that absinthe will be automatically updated. If you're doing a group tasting, a separate review and score must be entered for each person.

The Online Review Form

You must be a registered user inthe discussion forums in order to leave reviews. Register using the link at the page. When you signify that you'd like to leave an absinthe review, an administrator will set up a review account for you.

Anyone may download, print, and distribute the score sheet for use in personal or group tastings, commercial or private.

• Navigate to the absinthe you wish to score and review and click on the text "Add new review" and the review pane will open. There will be a next to each criteria on the scoring form. Hovering over the icon will display the criteria tips as shown below.

• Rate the absinthe or other product on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being very poor and 5 being perfect, consult the criteria tips if necessary.

• Leave your comments. Your review comments are not required, but will be helpful to others looking for opinions on this absinthe, which is the whole point of the system. Use this section to explain your findings and give your overall opinion of this product.

While we encourage strict honesty and frankness in review comments, all user-reviews are moderated and vulgarity and abusive language will be removed.

A good review will be instructive not only to the consumer, but to the maker as well, as either praise for an excellent product or advice as to how a product might be improved. The distillers do pay attention!